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Dire Fleet Poisoner Discussion

2 weeks ago

The first thing I'll say is that with 21 lands, you probably can't expect to get the mana to launch Army of the Damned or a really powerful Mind Grind or Torment of Hailfire. Well, at least without Organ Harvest, of which you're only sporting one copy. (If you don't play with teammates, or if you don't play with silver-bordered cards, you might replace it with Culling the Weak.) For reference, the math on Army of the Damned is that about 1/3 of your cards are lands = 8/24, meaning you need to survive to turn 17-18 (have seen a total of 24 cards between your opening hand and your draws each turn) to hit that 8th land. That’s a long time in a Magic game.

Second, Mind Grind, while fun, is questionable here, since none of your other cards will mill your opponent. Many people play with 4 copies of many of their cards, so milling them might not cut them off from their game plan unless you mill them so much they might die. And for that, you would need more support for the mill plan or a LOT more mana. (This is possible, but a big change. Look for cards like Glimpse the Unthinkable and Mind Funeral. Otherwise, I'd cut it for cards that affect board-state or life-totals.)

Third, your overall game plan appears to be to stall in the early game for more powerful plays late, since your low cost cards are generally defensive. This means you'll want more lands in your deck so that you don't stumble on your way to those big plays. I'd remove Coral Atoll and put in four Dimir Aqueducts. It's not the ideal play, but it's cheap and there's a lot of upside if your opponent doesn't Ghost Quarter it or something. Anyways, that will take you up to 24 lands AND increase your average mana output a little more, letting you rely on 4CMC, 5CMC, and 6CMC plays to dominate the game.

Finally, on to individual cards:

Kraken Hatchling, Mausoleum Wanderer, Pharika's Chosen, and Will-o'-the-Wisp are all fine defensive one-drops, but they all do something a little different. Thornbow Archer is a little more aggressive than the rest of your deck wants, so maybe drop it and pick your favorite of those first four and add a second.

Wharf Infiltrator can be good sometimes. You can leave it in for fun or replace it.

Eternal Scourge has its uses, but I don't think this deck is optimized for it. Ideally you'd want a few things that can exile it from graveyard or hand, such as Gurmag Angler, Soulflayer, Tombstalker, Scavenging Ooze, Grim Lavamancer), Azor's GatewayFlip (from hand), or the most hilarious option, Serum Powder. As it stands, it's just difficult to kill outside of combat, like a bad shroud or hexproof. Honestly, I don't think you need a 3/3 to be immune to removal. Replace with a finisher, which I'll discuss in a bit. Alternately, one of my favorite defensive 3CMC creatures is Graveblade Marauder, since its offensive capabilities can rapidly increase.

Midnight Scavengers is okay, especially if you have a lot of disposable deathtouchers to bring back, but it still doesn't compare favorably to the above finishers unless you really want to meld it with Graf Rats. Remember, doing things you want to do is an important part of MTG. But if you don't care to meld, I'd look to replace it.

Organ Harvest is a powerful card, but has some drawbacks. Most importantly, a lot of people don't play with or against silver-bordered cards. They're not legal in any official tournaments. Tournament legal variations are Dark Ritual, Culling the Weak, and Ashnod's Altar. Other than that, it's a card that is useless in many situations and completely changes what you're able to do when you actually can make use of it, and that can be awkward from a strategy perspective. If you don't have creatures, you can't cast it. If you don't have a big spell in your hand, you don't need to cast it and you'd rather have almost any other card. So it wants your deck to be full of disposable creatures and big spells, like an emerge deck or a zombie deck really making use of Army of the Damned and From Under the Floorboards. But for the most part that is not this deck, so unless you want to build around the card, I'd remove it, either replacing it with Dark Ritual which is always useful when drawn early, or something else that's cheap and effective: Dead Weight, Apathy, Doom Blade, Pharika's Chosen, or whatever.

Sorcerous Sight is worse than Peek and Gitaxian Probe, but I don't think any of those are particularly good in your deck. If you want to know what's in your opponent's hand, play Telepathy. Otherwise, there's better card draw: Preordain and Ponder are the best cheap spells, but it might be worth spending more mana for more effect with Sign in Blood or Chart a Course.

Contingency Plan doesn't actually net you any cards in hand; you just control what you are going to draw later. Since you're not very graveyard-focused, there's little benefit. The more flexible version is Dimir Charm, and the more powerful version is Lim-Dul's Vault. If you want to stack the top of your deck for 2CMC without wasting a card to do it, there's Diabolic Vision, but the 1CMC Preordain and Ponder are worthy as well. Alternately, raw card advantage is an option. Any of the options I've already listed are fine, but here are some more: Chemister's Insight, Foresee, Deep Analysis.

Mind Grind attacks on an irrelevant axis. Recommend replacing it with a finisher unless you add more mill. If you want a non-creature finisher, Ob Nixilis Reignited is pretty cool. If you just want something that can't get Murdered, there's Sphinx of Jwar Isle.

Torment of Hailfire is possibly workable if you go to 24 lands with Dimir Aqueducts. X=3 is pretty much the bare minimum, and if they have cards in hand even that might not be enough. This is a possible swap for a finisher, as above.

Army of the Damned is hard to cast at 8CMC. Recommend replacing it with a cheaper finisher unless you're all about Organ Harvest.

Apathy is pretty decent at 1CMC. Probably not as good as just casting Doom Blade/Go for the Throat to kill the thing, but definitely more interesting and fun. It can stay in, though swapping it for something more reliable is technically the correct decision.

Strange Augmentation is bad in your deck. While +3/+3 for 1CMC is fine in a very aggressive deck, that doesn't seem like your game plan. Ideally, your finishers are big enough to win without the extra P/T. If they're not, these could be replaced with kill spells to make sure they are.

Outwit is way too narrow; most decks don't target players. (The primary exceptions are burn and mill, so if you play against them a lot, it might be fine.) If you want a dollar-cost-effective counterspell in that slot, play Counterspell or MAYBE Dimir Charm for flexibility.

That's just one take on the general strategy. Ultimately, (I think) you're playing Dimir Midrange, and so you're looking for about 40% (24) lands, 30% (18) things that keep you alive until you have 4-6 mana, 20% (12) things that kill your opponent and are themselves hard to kill, and 10% (6) things that put you ahead on cards just in case you're not drawing the right part of your deck.

1 month ago

The strongest card for the Drakes is Lava Coil. It's the best answer for the Phoenix as well. You should be running 4 of these in your 75.

Fiery Cannonade will kill the Phoenixes on their turn, which is good, but all the Drakes will survive it. Attacking into a Drake with deathtouch via Dire Fleet Poisoner is a reasonable strategy but savvy opponents probably won't fall for it more than once.

Honestly, your best bet is aggro. Outpace your opponent for damage and race them. Use removal on the Drakes whenever your opponent doesn't have countermeasures open.

If your opponent is running tons of removal and answering your threats, March of the Drowned is a reasonable sideboard card. Duress is also pretty decent, too.

1 month ago

Ah, ok I got it. I completly forgot Radiant Destiny is white. Had it in my mind that it's na artficat for some reason.
You're correct about banner that it costs too much mana and doesn't go well with Experimental Frenzy. It only helps a lot if the game stretches out however.

1 month ago

First item: Experimental Frenzy is actually very good in the deck. We don't have much of an issue when it comes to mana, and our curve is low enough to make good use of the card. This will only get better when we get Blood Crypt next set. Vanquisher's Banner is too expensive mana-wise, and we have other forms of card advantage anyway. Radiant Destiny isn't in our colors and were won't be able to afford to splash for it.

As for Dire Fleet Poisoner...there's nothing to fix here other than to further specify that we'd need to give deathtouch to an attacking Pirate that also has first strike (so, Rigging Runner or Dire Fleet Daredevil. Yes, Lyra Dawnbringer has flying, so the trade would not be via a surprise block. Remember, the Poisoner can only give an attacking Pirate deathtouch, so I'm talking about a surprise trade for when we attack into a Lyra with a first strike Pirate. If Lyra blocks, we can flash this in to give whatever she's blocking deathtouch. As long as it's a Rigging Runner or a Dire Fleet Daredevil, they will hit each other and Lyra will die to deathtouch. Correct, we will not be trading with a Lyra when we are the ones blocking (that's not what I was referring to) — only when we are the ones attacking will we be looking to offer a surprise trade with a Lyra via a Pirate with first strike. Should have been clearer about that.

1 month ago

The only standard legal instant you have is Costly Plunder. I would swap the others put for stuff like Siren's Ruse and other pirate related spells. I also think Wanted Scoundrels is a very bad card. Rowdy Crew isnt particularly great either. You would do better with a playset of Dire Fleet Poisoner.other than that you are right sir, this is a grixis pirate deck!

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